15 destinations Instagram has helped ruin

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Instagram has always been a great place to find travel inspiration, displaying photos of hidden paradises around the world.

But once Instagram photos attract enough attention, the locations that get geotagged can be overrun by tourists trying to snap similar shots.

These 15 travel spots have faced overcrowding, gridlock, environmental damages, and more, thanks to unwelcome Instagram fame.

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Instagram has undoubtedly created a lot of cultural shifts, and one major change is in our travel habits. Spots that were once considered private, residential, unknown, or even sacred have met their match on Instagram.

The process has been as follows: Instagrammers with large followings take pictures at beautiful, previously unheard of or rarely visited locations. People see the likes and the natural beauty and swarm to the streets, parks, cliffs, fields, and more. Sometimes, places end up worse off in the face of new visitors. Sometimes, disasters occur.

Of the hot new travel destinations discovered through Instagram, these 15 spots have been ruined, desecrated, or even closed down permanently thanks to a barrage of photo-takers.Tree-lined streets in the Broadacres neighborhood of Houston have attracted too many photoshoots, residents say.

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It's easy to see the appeal of Houston's Broadacres. The tree-lined brick pathways in the residential neighborhood create a stunning backdrop for all photography occasions, from weddings to graduations.

But residents have put up signs demanding that no photoshoots occur, and warning visitors to stay off private property, since up to 50 shoots take place in good weather conditions at a time, homeowners say.

The local Homeowners Association president told Paper City Magazine in Houston that residents had been considering how to take action for four years as photography interest in the area grew.

Part of the issue became that, along with photography equipment, photo subjects would bring props and leave behind garbage like balloons and confetti. Even a Jeep was reportedly brought onto the brick walkway at one point.

A #poppynightmare took over the town of Lake Elsinore in southern California.

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The town of Lake Elsinore, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles, found itself facing what the mayor called the "apoppylypse" in March. Heavy rains caused the city's Walker Canyon nature reserve to bloom with millions of bright orange poppies, and the scenic slopes quickly gained traction on Instagram.

In just one weekend, more than 66,000 tourists looking to take the perfect shot for Instagram flooded the town, causing gridlock and standstill traffic in the streets, crushing poppies underfoot, and fainting in the heat. City social media termed the situation a "#poppynightmare," and streets leading to Walker Canyon had to be temporarily closed to non-residents.

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The Mount Everest base camp accumulated so much trash from tourists that it had to be closed.

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The Chinese government announced in February that only tourists with climbing permits could access its Mount Everest base camp. Only 300 of those permits are issued each year.

The Tibetan base camp accumulated over 8 tons of waste, including human feces and mountaineering equipment, thanks in part to the flow of tourists who could reach the Tibeten side of the mountain by car. On the Nepalese side, the base camp requires a 2-week hike to access.

In 2015 alone, Tibet welcomed over 40,000 visitors to the base camp.

The Chinese government said the recent closure would help them clean-up Mount Everest by allowing them to collect the unknown number, but numerous amount, of dead bodies that have been left on the extremely dangerous slopes.

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